The Intent of our Science Curriculum 

Intent - 

Our high-quality, knowledge based science education at St Francis Xavier aims to provide all learners with the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, physics and chemistry, as well as develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena within every pupil. 

Our curriculum aims to give purposeful learning opportunities that build on children's prior learning. Children should be taught through enquiry based learning, where they are given time to investigate, prove and justify theories and reasons. 

Science links in with other school intents; working independently and collaboratively and trying new experiences. 

In Science, Year 5 have been learning about how we can separate mixtures using filtration. We used tea leaves, a funnel, filter paper and beakers to investigate. First, we mixed together tea leaves and water. Then, we poured the mixture into the filter paper to separate the leaves from the water. We had great fun!

For our first Science lesson we explored what a rock is. We conducted an investigation where we explored the three different types of rocks. We described how they felt and made predictions on what type of rock we thought it was.

Y2: Materials

Year 2 have been comparing soaked beans and dry beans. They dissected some runner beans to find out what is inside them.

For our Science topic of Plants Year One explored the different parts of a plant. They each had their own plant that they got to touch and dissect. We felt the petals, the stem, the roots, the soil and the leaves. Then we labelled the different parts of a plant in our books.

This half term we have been learning about life cycles in Science lessons. We have used various scientific skills in this unit including asking questions, drawing conclusions, recording data and using sources. 

In Nursery we planted our own magic beans. We talked about how to look after the bean plants and prepared to watch them grow.

Year 4 have been busy investigating how Sound travels and how different materials absorb sound as well as what can affect the volume of a sound.

For our science lesson we were looking at how light travels through materials. We learnt the new vocabulary of opaque, translucent and transparent and their meaning. Using torches we shone the light through different materials to see if they were opaque, transparent and translucent. Finally we ordered the materials from the one that allowed the least light to pass through (opaque) to the one that allows the most light to pass through (transparent).

In Nursery the children have been learning about what objects float and what objects sink. We watched a very interesting video and learnt lots of new things. The children then took what they had learnt and put it into practice. They gathered around the water area and chose different objects. The children then guessed which objects would float and which objects would sink. This was a very fun experiment!

In Science, Year 2 have been learning all about habitats. 

Today we explored our frozen playground. We talked about why water turns solid and how it melts. We also discovered some beautiful cobwebs which had frozen.